Free Blood Bond by Michael Green Page A

your special room. He’ll be here at the same time.’
    Trying to hide her shaking, she put Mathew’s clothes in the bag, donned her skirt and blouse, and slipped from the room.
    The next night she returned. Damian had left both the doors ajar and was waiting in the dressing room as instructed. Alone inthe bedroom, she quickly transformed her appearance, then slipped through the door into the dressing room and over to the strange apparatus.
    He was with her immediately: anxious, caressing and impatient. When he was satisfied, she left. Not a word had been spoken. Words would have broken the illusion.
    She returned every night. Her days were spent dreading what lay ahead. But each night the thought of what he might otherwise do to her children forced her up the stairs towards his room.
    He was always waiting for her. Neither of them would speak. Sometimes he would snuff out the candle and in the darkness she would act out rituals that took him to strange worlds of fantasy and violence.
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    Damian often boasted to his father and brothers of the good time he was having with Cheryl. The other members of the Chatfield family, however, kept their business between Diana and the women concerned.
    Nigel watched Jasper’s eyes follow Jennifer as she worked on the stone wall at the end of the garden. Earlier he’d heard Jennifer giggling when Jasper had sauntered down to relay his father’s instructions to build the wall a foot higher.
    â€˜Are you screwing that woman?’ Nigel demanded.
    â€˜Sure am — that woman’s forgotten more about sex than any other woman I’ve ever slept with,’ Jasper boasted, winking to his brothers.
    â€˜She’s too old,’ spat Nigel.
    â€˜Many a fine tune played on an old fiddle,’ Jasper said, recalling Damian’s words.
    â€˜She’s too old to have children, I mean,’ Nigel said. ‘Your job is not to pleasure yourself, it’s to produce more subjects. That goes for the rest of you, too. I want pregnant women. I want male heirs.’
    The edict delivered, he stormed off, passing Diana on the way back to his quarters. ‘I’ve had enough of those stupid young girls. I need a real woman. Send me Jennifer.’
    â€˜Yes, Your Lordship.’
    Diana, suppressing a smile, hurried off to tell Virginia the good news that she had at last managed to persuade Nigel to leave her daughters alone — at least for the present.
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    One night, after a couple of weeks, Cheryl sensed that Damian was agitated. When she entered the dressing room he was sitting on the edge of the chaise longue, shoulders hunched, his chin cupped in his hands. She went through her routine a little more slowly, a little more seductively. She felt him move behind her.
    â€˜You’ve got to get pregnant,’ he blurted. ‘His Lordship says my brothers and I have to produce babies and build up the community’s numbers. It’s all Jasper’s fault.’
    She didn’t ask him what Jasper had done; she simply turned around, arched herself across the apparatus, took his penis and drew him into her.
    â€˜It’s no good,’ he said as he struggled unsuccessfully to maintain his erection.
    She spoke to him for the first time in over two weeks. ‘Give Mary-Claire back to me,’ she said softly, ‘and I promise I’ll get pregnant.’
    â€˜How?’
    â€˜That’s my problem — leave it to me and don’t worry. No one will ever know the baby’s not yours.’
    â€˜There’s no way I can get Mary-Claire back to you.’
    â€˜I’m sure you can persuade your father if you really try,’ she said gently, then added more sternly, ‘If I don’t get pregnant, your father will force you to sleep with other women. Do you want everyone to know your secret? Now come on, stop worrying — just get Mary-Claire back to me and everything will be all right.’

10
    As Archangel